Cryptocurrencies and Excessive Energy Use? The Surprising and
Unsustainable Environmental and Climate Impacts of Bitcoin Mining: The Rise
(and potential fall) of Cryptocurrencies and the Potential of Blockchain
Technology
Cryptocurrency, digital currency, cyber currency, virtual
currency, cryptocoins – these all refer to a form of currency, or rather, a
payment system, controlled and valued by computer algorithms that provide
excellent mathematical security, potentially unparalleled speed of
transactions, and could ease the role of banks and bank fees. The total global market
cap of cryptocurrencies is now over $500 billion with the recent price jumps.
The recent rise in value has precipitated quite a deluge of media about
cryptocurrencies. Scientific American has called it the future of money.
“Bitcoin is a mathematically protected digital currency that
is maintained by a network of peers. Digital signatures authorize individual
transactions, ownership is passed via transaction chains, and the ordering at
those transactions is protected in the block chain. By requiring difficult math
problems to be solved by each block, would-be attackers are pitted against the
entire rest of the network in a computational race they are unlikely to win.”
Mining refers to how the cryptocurrency ledger is arrived
at. Some have referred to these mining operations as “cryptoeconomic networks.”
Computing power through cryptography basically records and verifies the ledger
through consensus agreement, or consensus protocol, on the ordering of
transactions through what is called a ‘blockchain.’
Cryptocurrencies and Illegal Activities
Some say this is the future of currency and can’t be
stopped. Others like me are quite doubtful. In some ways cryptocurrencies are
superior to traditional ones: inflation cannot occur and the need for third
parties to record and verify is circumvented. However, there are several issues
with these cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Etherium (Ether). These
currencies are unregulated and “unbacked.” They cannot currently be exchanged
with other forms of currency. Transaction fees can be high. Companies that
accept cryptocurrencies may be slow in updating their value so that one may pay
significantly more in the case of rising value as now or lower during falling
value. They have been cited as havens for tax evasion and other illegal
activity. Just recently it was just reported that a Long Island woman laundered
$85,000 to ISIS through Bitcoin. Russian pipeline operator Transneft just
reported that its computers were illegally being used to mine cryptocurrencies
and warned of them being used to fund terrorism. Oil wells in China have been
outfitted with mining machines to effectively siphon energy from the coal-based
power grid by posing as part of the oil pumping equipment. North Korea is
suspected in hacking Bitcoin exchanges and collecting bitcoins as ransom
payment in ransomware attacks. There is even a cryptocurrency mining trojan
malware that can damage the batteries of Android phones. Cryptocurrencies are
becoming the preferred way to buy on the black market due to the anonymity of transactions
without third party verification. It has been implicated in darkweb weapons
dealing. At least one piracy site on the web is through malware “borrowing”
visitors’ computers to mine cryptocurrency. This has come to be termed "cryptojacking." While the transactions themselves
are very secure the exchanges where cryptocurrencies are traded are not and
have been targeted successfully by hackers. This is being addressed by new
models such as AirSwap involving true ‘peer-to-peer’ transactions. However, it is an extreme problem with the Reuters article referenced below noting that:
"More than 980,000 bitcoins have been stolen from exchanges, which would be worth more than $15 billion at current exchange rates. Few have been recovered, leaving some investors without any compensation."
Questions of regulation of both cryptocurrencies and mining
are coming up all over. Many think that could ruin the benefits of blockchain
tech but frankly something will have to be done about the mining especially as
interest continues to grow and the algorithms become more complex and
power-consuming. Mining is also very accessible:
“Everyone who can afford to spend a few bucks on a dedicated
CPU, and pay for electricity to maintain a blockchain,
can mine digital coins.”
Speculation Markets are High-Risk High-Return Dens of Volatility
How these currencies are valuated can only be termed
speculative. Of course, speculation is by nature risky. One of the reference
articles below has a note:
“[Ed note: Investing in cryptocoins or tokens is highly
speculative and the market is largely unregulated. Anyone considering it should
be prepared to lose their entire investment]”
Outgoing Fed chair Janet Yellen recently weighed in:
“Bitcoin at this time plays a very small role in the payment
system. It is not a stable source of value and does not constitute legal
tender. It is a highly speculative asset.”
She noted that the Fed is always on the lookout for
interactions with those cryptocurrency participants that may be laundering
money through them. In response to a question about some global central banks
possibly exploring their own cryptocurrencies she notes that the Federal
Reserve has no such plans, stating “limited benefits” and “substantial concerns.”
Speculation is often the source of bubbles. Cryptocurrencies just entered
futures markets which is one reason for their rise. In a recent survey, 80% of
Wall Street economists and strategists see Bitcoin as a bubble and 66% do not
think it even qualifies as a currency under most definitions. Although many
think it is the wave of the future, others say it will implode. Bill Gates and
Richard Branson have seemed to praise it but real-life “Wolf of Wall Street”
speculator Jordan Belfort calls it a “huge scam” and likens it to the Dutch
“tulip-mania” in the 1500’s which began to implode shortly after futures
trading began. Volatility in cryptocurrencies has been demonstrated, with one
assessment at 6 times the volatility of the S & P 500 and 5 times the
volatility of gold. Warren Buffet explains why it is not a currency, that it is
actually based on the value of the dollar, and why he thinks it won’t last. Buffet
also invokes tulip-mania. Bill Gates notes the lack of a need for a traditional
third party for transactions and the potential of bitcoin technology, likely
referring to blockchain technology. Elon Musk, who said he does not own any
Bitcoin, thinks it will be used quite a bit for illegal transactions as well as
legal ones. Richard Branson notes that prediction of volatile markets is often a
means to profit.
As in any financial market successful prediction is
profitable. Futures markets and other short-term trading promote volatility and
sometimes can be manipulated. Cryptocurrencies have come to be seen as high risk/high
return investments due to the volatility. A recent trend is Bitcoin IRAs that
now also utilize other cryptocurrencies. A younger person’s retirement account
typically is more weighted to growth funds that are high risk/high return.
The ledger is provided by what are called bitcoin miners
and is verified globally by all bitcoin owners. It is a ‘distributed ledger’
that can be “witnessed” by all participants. This can help with auditing. Computing
power becomes the way transactions are verified and ordered, balances are
determined, and provides security. Bitcoin owners have a public key and a
private key. If one were to lose one’s “private key,” say through a hard drive
failure one might lose access to one’s money. Ordering transactions on the
network is done through what is called “blockchain” technology. This is done
mathematically through what is called a “cryptographic hash.” Each “block” in
the “chain” needs to be solved to determine the order of transactions and this
results in a “hash output,” or transaction fingerprint. Mining refers to
solving blocks. Doing this mathematically uses energy, a lot of energy. Thus,
mathematical algorithms (ever-increasing in complexity) are in a sense what is
“backing” the alleged currency and behind that the energy required to generate
the algorithms is the primary backer. The blockchain can be seen as a strong
encryption technology that eliminates the need for third parties to process
transactions. The energy-sucking algorithms back the encryption technology. Traditionally
the third party is also the party that might provide a way to retrieve one’s
password if forgotten. This is an issue now apparently with many who made a
windfall and can’t access it. There is even a password recovery service that
uses high-powered computers and algorithms to retrieve passwords for a 20% cut
of the value.
Cryptocurrencies from Different Perspectives
From an ‘ease-of-transaction’ perspective digital currencies
are potentially great. Not needing centralized banks with employees and
buildings can save resources but it can also contribute toward less job
availability. Consumers can potentially bypass fees and waiting. However,
presently cryptocurrency transaction can be quite inconvenient due to
transaction fees, waiting times, and synchronizing updated values. In fact,
Bitcoin fees have been rising which makes them entirely impractical for small
purchases which ironically was an original selling point. Fees did decrease for
a while. In early 2017 fees were usually less than a dollar per transaction and
often less than ten cents per transaction. Now the avg. bitcoin transaction fee
is around $28. This is due to its popularity and the failure to keep up with
it. Intermediary companies like BitPay insulate companies that opt to accept
Bitcoin from the volatility of the currency. However, with high transaction
fees BitPay has also raised their fees. Another issue is congestion. Paying
with Bitcoin can take hours. Users can pay a higher fee to pay faster. Video
game streaming service Steam just announced they would no longer accept Bitcoin
due to the transaction fees. So we see that ease-of-transaction is not a
current feature.
From a market portfolio perspective cryptocurrencies are
going more mainstream with Goldman Sachs just announcing they will set up a
cryptocurrency trading desk in response to client interest. With cryptocurrency
IRAs and inclusion in hedge funds these volatile and power-gobbling markets are
growing. The lure of high growth is strong.
In a cosmic sense participants are consuming massive amounts
of energy to make digital financial transactions safe from hackers while
traders and hedge fund managers play a volatile speculative market. It’s a bit
ironic that records of transaction, once kept on clay tablets in cuneiform
writing in greater Mesopotamia can now be kept on the computers of every
participant but at an energy cost that should be seen as unacceptable or at
least unnecessary. The energy is providing security of records, from hackers.
From an energy consumption perspective cryptocurrencies are
an outright failure and add much to endanger environment and climate. In order
for them to survive this issue needs to be addressed as soon as possible. It is
unsustainable, outrageous, and excessive.
Energy Consumption of Cryptocurrency Mining
According to the Bitcoin
Energy Consumption Index the current rate of annual energy use for Bitcoin
mining is 36.3 TWh and with more participation and more difficult algorithms to
solve it is only set to grow. This is more energy use than some entire
countries. Electricity consumed per transaction is now at a whopping 273 KWh,
enough to power a typical house in the U.S. for a week or two!
The culprit is a power-hungry kind of algorithm that
basically” crunches numbers.” Apparently, the current ‘consensus algorithm’ is
Proof-of-Work which is very power hungry. Alternative algorithms like
Proof-of-Stake consume negligible power in comparison but have yet to be
proven. Another possible algorithm that is much less energy intensive is called
Proof-of-Time-and-Storage. Utilizing this model has been called cryptocurrency
“farming” rather than mining. However, it has yet to be launched and those who
plan to launch it for their own cryptocurrency say there are still kinks to
work out. Also, it is unclear how much energy it will save over current mining.
Ethereum plans to offer a Proof-of-Stake model in 2018. The philosophy of
Proof-of-Work has been summarized as “security comes form burning energy” since
it is the most power-consumptive solution that leads to blockchain consensus.
The philosophy of Proof-of-Stake has been summarized as “security comes from
putting up economic value-at-loss.” Here any maliciousness is penalized so
threat of penalty discourages it. So P-O-W is motivated by reward while P-O-S
is motivated by punishment. In this case punishment is cheaper in energy
expenditure than reward. Ethereum founder John Lilic notes that “mass adoption of Bitcoin across US households will
result in very large increases of electricity use relative to existing
financial systems.”
The Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index provides a graph (shown
below) indicating that another financial payment service, credit card company VISA,
provides its service for over 50 times less energy use. VISA by itself
processes 800 times more transactions than Bitcoin. By one estimate a Bitcoin
transaction uses 3000 times more energy than a VISA transaction. (VISA -
households 50,000 – households refers to energy required to run that many
households)
The Index calculates energy use as a probable percentage of
miner income rather than Watts consumed per Gigahash/sec since other
assumptions will vary considerably and likely underestimate energy use. As the length
of the blockchain increases so too does the power usage. As cryptocurrencies
rise in value the miners add more power to their operations. It is not only
cryptocurrencies but all automation and IOT functions increase energy use.
However, the cryptography of the cryptocurrencies takes it to new levels. Digital
technologies utilized in power regulation such as frequency response, grid
balancing, quick-startup of peaker plants, and software-based industrial
automation, etc. can reduce overall power use by digitally cutting waste but where
do we draw the line and declare excessive power use by certain digital
technologies as “frivolous”?
It is not only the computing power that burns energy but the
cooling requirements of the machines. The same is true of power-hungry data
centers. Current mining machines trade efficiency for reliability: the more
efficient machines are less reliable and vice versa. At 5000 BTU per hour of
waste heat per machine this makes each comparable in consumption to a portable
electric heater. That accounts for about 80% of total power usage for one
operation (Bitmain, mentioned in paragraph below). For the same mining
operation, the cooling costs through the use of fans and evaporative cooling
calculates to the 20% of the total power consumed. However, cooling could
approach 30% of consumption if they were running full capacity since machines
are throttled back if they get too hot, especially during hot summer days.
While some mines brag that they run on renewable energy many
more, especially in China, run essentially on coal from nearby coal plants. One
of the world’s largest, Bitmain Technologies, is in China’s Inner Mongolia.
Their 8 buildings, 25,000 mining machines and 50 employees spend $39,000 per
day to consume 40MW per hour to mine. Their energy costs are discounted by the
government in exchange for taxation on their profits. Running on coal the
carbon footprint of this mine was calculated to be 24-40 tons of CO2 per hour,
roughly equivalent to a Boeing 747-400 in hourly carbon footprint. It would
calculate to 2-3 kg CO2 per transaction and 8-13 tons CO2 per coin mined. It is
interesting to note that of the 140+ references cited in the Wikipedia entry on
‘blockchain,’ none refers directly to energy use.
While one may argue that other energy intensive digital activities like the cloud, mass sharing of video and audio content, and streaming are also dubious it is clear that those activities have social and artistic functions that humans broadly agree are valuable. Nobel prize winner in economics Joseph Stiglitz notes that Bitcoin "creates no value for society and only works by getting around the role of the government in controlling currency and as such should be outlawed." Stiglitz did note, however, that he would like to see a shift away from paper currency towards digital currency, just not the unregulated types of cryptocurrencies that have enmerged.
Blockchain Technology and Its Potential
According to the World Economic Forum:
“Like the Internet, blockchain is an open, global
infrastructure upon which other technologies and applications can be built. And
like the Internet, it allows people to bypass traditional intermediaries in
their dealings with each other, thereby lowering or even eliminating
transaction costs”
Many people are looking at blockchain technology in other
applications to reduce corruption but with far less energy use (typically in
much smaller networks) than the cryptography math used to secure Bitcoin etal.
It is automated and decentralized, or distributed. The Long Island Ice Tea
Corporation recently changed its name to “Long Blockchain” and its stock price
tripled reminiscent of adding “.com” to a company’s name in the 1990’s before
the dotcom bubble burst. The company notes that: “Emerging blockchain
technologies are creating a fundamental paradigm shift across the global
marketplace.” What makes blockchain tech attractive is “its high level of
security, lack of a centralized authority, and low barrier to entry.” The
success of blockchain technology is dependent on making it greener by finding
much less power consumptive algorithms because at present it is unsustainable
and frankly outrageous.
Blockchain technology has many other potential uses. The
following definition for blockchain is given in Wikipedia:
“A blockchain,[1][2][3] originally block chain,[4][5] is a
continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and
secured using cryptography.[1][6] Each block typically contains a hash pointer
as a link to a previous block,[6] a timestamp and transaction data.[7] By
design, blockchains are inherently resistant to modification of the data. The
Harvard Business Review describes it as "an open, distributed ledger that
can record transactions between two parties efficiently and in a verifiable and
permanent way."[8] For use as a distributed ledger, a blockchain is
typically managed by a peer-to-peer network collectively adhering to a protocol
for validating new blocks. Once recorded, the data in any given block cannot be
altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent blocks, which
requires collusion of the network majority.”
Blockchain technology is “potentially suitable for the
recording of events, medical records,[10][11] and other records management
activities, such as identity management,[12][13][14] transaction processing,
documenting provenance, food traceability[15] or voting.[16]”
“The first blockchain was conceptualized in 2008 by an
anonymous person or group known as Satoshi Nakamoto and implemented in 2009 as
a core component of bitcoin where it serves as the public ledger for all
transactions.”
The World Food Program is successfully using blockchain tech
to provide secured cash advances to people in need of food. The secure system
allows them to purchase food of their choice from local sources. This makes
food distribution more secure, keeps better records, and makes the distribution
process more efficient. It has the potential to simplify, speed up, and better
manage life-saving food and cash assistance to communities facing hunger or for
victims of natural disasters. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation aims to
utilize blockchain tech in food and cash distribution to some of the 2 billion
people in the world who lack a bank account. Most of those people now have cell
phones and can benefit from a digital payment system which saves time and
eliminates the problems with physical cash. This can speed up humanitarian response
and make it more efficient and less costly to implement and manage.
Blockchain tech is being used to verify land titles in
places where land has been taken due to corruption. Several countries are
implementing land registry and entitlement secured through blockchain. Accounting
firms are testing and adopting blockchain distributed ledgers. So-called smart
contracts such as those that might instantaneously pay musicians when their
songs are played on music services are utilizing blockchain. Banks, music
distribution services, and payment services like Visa and Mastercard are also
testing blockchain.
Blockchain tech has potential for use in the so-called
‘sharing economy’ which itself is based on what has been called the
‘information economy’ or the digital economy. In terms of addressing global
financial inequality blockchain tech has potential implications through giving
access to the digital economy to the poor, reducing corruption in aid
distribution, and efficiently and quickly helping the needy. Blockchain tech
itself emerged from the collaborative open-source movement.
“A World Economic Forum report from September 2015 predicted
that by 2025 ten percent of global GDP would be stored on blockchains
technology.”
Indigo Advisory Group and University of Cambridge identified
the industry segments where distributed ledger technology (DLT) (ie.
blockchain) is being developed, often by venture-capital funded start-ups and
pilots:
Blockchain Tech Potential for Distributed Energy Resources, Energy
Trading, Utilities, and Other Energy Apps
Blockchain tech is also being explored in distributed energy
systems (and this may be a future post) particularly with microgrids. It can be
used in charging and sharing EVs as a recording ledger. It could also be used
to throttle back smart IOT home appliance in response to the instantaneous energy
needs of the local power grid.
“Samsung and IBM in January [2016] released a platform
called ADEPT for controlling connected devices based on the blockchain concept.
The platform uses software that Ethereum developed that authenticates smart
contracts. The contracts could be microtransactions between appliances
inside a home as they react autonomously and instantaneously to changing grid
conditions.”
Navigant Research reports (in 3Q 2016) that:
“While many use cases have been proposed for the energy
industry, the one gaining the most traction at present is peer-to-peer (P2P)
power trading, where owners of small-scale generation can sell excess
generation direct to other consumers. Today, centralized control of distributed
energy resources (DER) restricts to whom and when DER owners can sell their
energy back to the grid. A blockchain-enabled P2P model allows much greater
flexibility and could be a powerful enabler for truly customer-centric
transactive energy. The earliest adopters of blockchain will likely not be utilities,
but other stakeholders. Currently, those leading the research into blockchain
are the owners of DER and startups seeking to sell directly to them.”
Pre-programmed ‘smart contracts’ can automatically trigger
transactions, cutting out any third party ‘middleman.’ Through pre-programming,
meters can automatically communicate with one another, trade energy, and record
those transactions directly to buyers’ and sellers’ balance sheets.
Unfortunately, we know that power grids have been frequent
targets of hackers so it is unclear whether a vastly growing system of power
trading DER generators would require an increasingly energy-consuming
cryptography scheme in order to keep systems secure. There has been much talk
of the vulnerability of IOT devices to hackers. However, as ‘permissioned
blockchains’ only accessible to registered users they are less likely to be
than say Bitcoin, as a public, anonymous, and permissionless blockchain.
Blockchain tech could eliminate the need for physical
meter-reading and also lead to more accurate billing. According to the Bitcoin
Magazine and Nasdaq.com article referenced below the implications of
blockchain-based P-2-P trading:
“The broader implications of this would include increased
industry competition leading to lower prices, streamlined energy distribution,
reduced energy waste and better relationships between utility companies and
their customers.”
According to the Harvard Business Review article referenced
below:
“Finally, blockchain may make existing electric industry
processes more efficient by serving as the backbone for utilities’ “smart grid”
management systems that automatically diagnose network emergencies and problems
and reconfigure in reaction to them. Austrian startup Grid Singularity is using
blockchain technology to develop a decentralized energy exchange platform that
can host applications ranging from validating electricity trades to monitoring
grid equipment, in part because such a platform has the potential to prolong
the life of equipment, improving both large and small power-generation system
operators’ earnings.”
The overall potential of blockchain tech to make energy
trading more efficient and to eliminate the need for over-redundancy and idling
peaking supply resources likely will far outweigh the energy used up in
cryptography so the potential is quite real here. Still it is unclear what
level of energy use would be required to provide these energy grid functions,
only that permissioned private networks not attached to a currency will require
less energy. Size of the network and amount of data also matters in energy consumption.
The blockchain-based DER pilot in Brooklyn, New York begun in 2016 utilizes the
Ethereum platform so perhaps they too will migrate to the less
energy-consumptive Proof-of-Stake consensus algorithm as Ethereum plans to
do.
“Like the Internet, blockchain is an open, global
infrastructure upon which other technologies and applications can be built. And
like the Internet, it allows people to bypass traditional intermediaries in
their dealings with each other, thereby lowering or even eliminating
transaction costs”
The following graphic from Indigo Advisory Group indicates
how emerging blockchain applications are being targeted in the energy and
utilities sector, currently mostly through pilot projects:
They also note that the impact of blockchain tech on
evolving utility business models is likely to be significant. They predict
impacts will be both supportive and disruptive.
Another graphic from Indigo Advisory Group shows how the
core blockchain technology is evolving in the energy and utilities sector:
They also note that:
“… the technology still needs time to mature and the core
developer network estimates that this may be 2-5 years away, as such, we
are in the midst of an experiment and right now blockchain technology is too
slow to handle real-time market needs.”
In addition, they note that energy apps require much faster
transaction confirmation times than financial apps and that the blockchains
here need to be private and permissioned blockchains without any digital currency
attached as in Bitcoin. Does this reduce the need for energy-consuming
cryptograpy? Yes, but by how much is still unclear. They also say that the
emerging technologies of AI, distributed ledgers (blockchain), and robotics
will mature in the next decade with increased proliferation of DERs, increased
deployment of sensors and data collection tools across the grid, and increased
demand-side energy management (DSM). They call this the 4th
Industrial Revolution (4IR). They also suggest that emerging carbon markets
will employ blockchain technology. One issue that is emerging is
‘fragmentation’ which refers to the proliferation of competing protocol
frameworks (often software platforms) along with small-scale ‘testing’ networks
in the myriad of pilot projects. In order to make the processes more efficient
across industries there would need to be standards adopted for seamless
operation so more universal platforms and frameworks would need to be agreed
upon. AI innovations in the energy and utilities sector include renewables
management (forecasting, equipment maintenance, efficiency, and storage),
demand management (efficiency, management systems, demand response management,
demand response game theory), and infrastructure management (digital asset
management, equipment operation and maintenance, and generation management).
Blockchain tech in combination with AI and robotics may have
myriad applications across the energy sector including in oil and gas (from zdnet.com
article referenced below):
"Blockchain technology can be deployed across the
entire oil and gas supply chain, from the wellhead all the way to the
consumer," said Daniel Nossa, an attorney with the law firm Steptoe and
Johnson, who has closely followed the development of blockchain technology.”
"When combined with IoT [Internet of Things], the
technology can be used to securely track and monitor the extraction and
transportation of hydrocarbons," Nossa said. "Smart contracts
embedded in the blockchain platform together with emerging AI [artificial
intelligence] technology can automate many of the transactions that occur, such
as the sale and physical transfer of the commodity from producers to marketers
to refiners and on to consumers."
References:
Mining Bitcoin Costs More Energy Than What 159 Countries Consume in a
Year – by Dom Galeon, in Futurism, Nov. 27, 2017
Fed Chief Yellen Says Bitcoin is a ‘Highly Speculative Asset’ – by John
Melloy, in CNBC, Dec. 13, 2017
Ether Climbs Past $750, Up More Than 9,000% This Year – by Charles
Bovaird, in Forbes, Dec. 14, 2017
The Biggest Bitcoin Mining Farm in Russia – posted on youtube,
published on Aug. 16, 2017
Inside of a Huge Bitcoin Mining Farm – techmagnet, published on
youtube, Nov. 11, 2017
Bitcoin Mining Explained – published on youtube, Dec. 5, 2016
How Bitcoin Works in Five Minutes – by CuriousInventor, published on
youtube, April 13, 2014
How Bitcoin Works Under the Hood – by CuriousInventor, published on
youtube, July 14, 2013
Transneft Says Its Computers Were Used for Mining Cryptocurrency – in
Reuters, Dec. 15, 2017
Long Island Woman Laundered Money to ISIS through Bitcoin, Prosecutors
Say, in Fox News, Dec. 15, 2017
CNBC Fed Survey: 80% of Wall Street Economists, Strategists Believe
Bitcoin is a Bubble: Survey – CNBC, Dec. 12, 2017
Bitcoin Energy Consumption Index – in Digiconomist, current through
Dec. 15, 2017
Jordan Belfort: Real-life ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ Says Bitcoin is a ‘Huge
Scam’ – by Tom Barnes, in Independent U.K., Dec. 15, 2017
Bitcoin and Ethereum Can Make You Millionaire Fast – Coinomia 2017,
posted on youtube, Feb. 5, 2017
Bitcoin: What Bill Gates, Buffett, Elon Musk, and Richard Branson Has
to Say About Bitcoin? – posted on youtube, June 28, 2017
A Bitcoin Hedge Fund’s Return: 25,004 Percent (That Wasn’t a Typo) – by
Nathaniel Popper, in New York Times, Dec. 19, 2017
How the Blockchain Revolution Will Decentralize Power and End
Corruption – by Brian Behlendorf, in Big Think (video), Dec. 19, 2017
North Korea Said to Be Suspect in Hack of Seoul Bitcoin Exchange – in
Bloomberg, Dec. 21, 2017
Five Myths About the Blockchain Revolution – by Don Tapscott, in
HuffPost, May 23, 2016
Good News! You Are a Bitcoin Millionaire. Bad News. You Forgot Your
Password – in Wall Street Journal, Dec. 21, 2017
Ice Tea Company Rebrands as “Long Blockchain” and Stock Price Triples –
by Timothy B. Lee, in Ars Technica, Dec.21, 2017
Goldman Sachs to Set Up Cryptocurrency Trading Desk: Bloomberg, in
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The Bitcoin and Blockchain: Energy Hogs – by Fabrice Flipo and Michel
Berne, in The Conversation, May 16, 2017
This Illegal Piracy Site is “Borrowing” Visitors Computers to Mine
Cryptocurrency – by Dom Galeon, in Futurism, Sept. 17, 2017
Blockchain is Radically Transforming Society’s Oldest Institutions – by
Kristin Houser, in Futurism, Sept. 27, 2017
A Deep Dive in a Real-World Bitcoin Mine – in Digiconomist, Oct. 25,
2017
Cryptocurrency “Farming” Could Make Blockchain More Eco-Friendly – by
Dom Galeon, in Futurist, Nov. 9, 2017
Proof of Stake Design Philosophy – by Vitalik Buterin, in Medium.com,
Dec. 30, 2016
How Much Energy Does Bitcoin Use? A Lot It Turns Out – by Zohair, in
securitygladiators.com, March 15, 2017
Bitcoin Network is Changing the World Through Skyrocketing Fees – by
Zohair, in securitygladiators.com, Dec. 20, 2017
A Single Bitcoin Transaction Takes Thousands of Times More Energy Than
a Credit Card Swipe – by Christopher Malmo, in Vice (Motherboard), March 7,
2017
Proof of Work Flaws: Ethereum Lays Out Proof of Stake Philosophy – by
Farzana Begum, in BTCManager.com, Jan. 7, 2017
Bitcoin and Energy Consumption: An Unsustainable Protocol That Must
Evolve – by John Lilic, in LinkedIn.com, Jan. 1, 2017
What is ‘Blockchain’ and How is It Connected to Fighting Hunger? –
United Nations World Food Program, March 6, 2017, updated November 2017
The Cryptocurrency Mining Trojan that Can Hurt Your Wallet – and Your
Phone’s Battery – in zdnet.com
Enabling Digital Financial Services in Humanitarian Response: Four
Priorities for Improving Payments – Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 2017
Blockchain and Value Systems in the Sharing Economy: The Illustrative
Case of Backfeed – by Alex Pazaitis, Primavera De Filippi, and Vasilis
Kostakus, in Working Papers in Technology Governance and Economic Dynamics No.
73 (EU), January 2017
How the Blockchain Will Create a Distributed Grid – in CCN.com, Feb.
29, 2016
Blockchain-Enabled Distributed Energy Trading – by Navigant Research,
3Q 2016
How Blockchain Tech Will Create a Distributed Future for the Energy
Sector –by Michael Scott, in Bitcoin Magazine and Nasdaq.com, March 27, 2017
How Utilities are Using Blockchain to Modernize the Grid – by James
Basden and Michael Cottrell, in Harvard Business Review, March 27, 2017
Blockchain in Energy and Utilities: Use Cases/Vendor Activity/Market
Analysis – by Indigo Advisory Group, 2017
Benchmarking Blockchain in Energy and Utilities – A Bellwether for 2018
– by David Groarke, Indigo Advisory Group, Oct. 14, 2017
Artificial Intelligence in Energy and Utilities [Infographic] – by
David Groarke, Indigo Advisory Group, April 11, 2017
Blockchain Shows Promise for Energy Companies: Potential Benefits
Include Security, Transparency, Efficiency, and Speed – by Bob Violino, in
zdnet.com, Dec. 20, 2017
Hackers Steal $64 Million from Cryptocurrency Firm NiceHash - in Reuters, Dec. 29, 2017
Why This Nobel Prize-Winning Economist Thinks Bitcoin Should Be "Outlawed" - by Paul Ratner, in Big Think, Nov. 30, 2017
